"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(Public Law 111-5)."
With a vision to fully realize the potential of next generation
communication network infrastructure based on ubiquitous sensor nodes,
this research introduces new architectures and strategies, for
distributed in-network information processing, which directly harness:
the structure of the objective performance metrics for information
processing, the structure of the underlying statistical dependencies
in the information gathered by sensing nodes, the topology of the
network, and the capability for bidirectional interactive information
exchange. This research advocates a two-fold paradigm shift in network
information processing: 1) a shift from the traditional goal of data
transport to the goal of function computation and 2) a shift from
unidirectional models of information flow to interactive information
flow models. This research supports the education of future scientists
and engineers by integrating research advances with curriculum
development and supports diversity by encouraging the participation of
women and under-represented groups.
This research develops two fundamentally new classes of code ensembles
for interactive information processing. The first is based on
techniques from abstract algebra and random graph theory to capture
the structure of functions being computed at destinations. The second
is based on techniques from communication complexity and multiterminal
information theory to capture interactive structures of information
flow in the network. These new code classes have superseded the
performance of random code ensembles used in network information
theory since its inception. This research develops new analytical
frameworks and tools to uncover the fundamental performance limits of
interactive information processing in sensor networks. This research
facilitates the cross-pollination of research fields by providing
components which build bridges between four fundamental areas, namely,
information and coding theory, abstract algebra, random graph theory,
and communication complexity theory.
